USD controls fate after rout of Valparaiso

USD football coach Dale Lindsey, like his peers, takes nothing for granted when his team plays on the road.

Lindsey came into Saturday’s game at Valparaiso maintaining that the Toreros were in for a game, even if the Crusaders were a heavy underdog.

“Valpo is capable of beating anybody at any time,” Lindsey said earlier in the week. “We can’t allow ourselves the comfort of saying we just go back there and win.”

Maybe not, but that’s pretty much how it turned out.

USD pounded Valparaiso 58-14 in the teams’ Pioneer Football League game, the Toreros coming within a point of the season-high they tallied at Stetson.

“Our team knows that every Saturday our season is on the line,” said USD quarterback Mason Mills, who completed 19 of 32 for 230 yards and four touchdowns. “We executed, for the most part, which translated to success.”

The Toreros led just 7-0 after the first quarter. They added 16 more points in the second quarter, fueled by a safety off a blocked punt.

“I thought that really got us going,” Lindsey said. “All the pieces seemed to fall together after the first quarter.”

With the fourth quarter winding down and the game well in hand, the Toreros received more good news when word came of Butler’s 33-30 win at Dayton.

“We didn’t say anything to them about the Butler-Dayton game (beforehand) because we wanted them to focus on Valparaiso,” Lindsey said. “Then we told them at the end of the game, which certainly got a nice ovation.”

All that did was put the Toreros’ destiny in their own hands in the school’s bid for its first postseason berth.

USD (6-3, 5-1 PFL), Butler (7-3, 5-1) and Marist (6-3, 5-1) — which defeated Jacksonville — remain tied atop the PFL standings. But the Toreros hold the tiebreaker over Butler and Marist by virtue of victories over each. Dayton (4-2, 6-3), which beat the Toreros 45-38 in double overtime, is the only team that holds a tiebreaker edge against USD.

For the first time, the PFL regular-season champion receives an automatic berth into the Division I Football Championship, a 24-team playoff.

USD plays at Morehead State on Saturday and then concludes the regular season at home, Nov. 16 against Drake.

USD led 23-7 at halftime and had a 37-7 advantage over Valparaiso (1-5, 1-8) through three quarters. USD’s passes were spread among 11 receivers. Sam Hoekstra had four catches and one TD, and Brandon White had three catches and two TDs.